


The Darkened Underpass

by Salathafi, Wishopenastar



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arranged Marriage, Fluffish, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:40:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25144048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salathafi/pseuds/Salathafi, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wishopenastar/pseuds/Wishopenastar
Summary: Nathaniel watched the familiar ring spinning on the table for a few seconds before he took it to put it in his ring finger.It fit him perfectly, he wondered if it meant that he and Mary had the same finger size or if his fiance and gotten it resized.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Ichirou Moriyama
Comments: 30
Kudos: 129





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NikotheAmazingSherlockian (Nikotheamazingspoonklepto)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nikotheamazingspoonklepto/gifts).



> This is for Niko.  
> I promised this and then promptly had breakdowns about other things. I didn't forget per se, only couldn't find want I wanted to write.
> 
> Happy birthday!!!♥️♥️♥️ (Very late lol)  
> You're fantastic and deserve all the best.

The first time Nathaniel met his now husband, they had been children. Nathaniel was a junior league exy champion and Ichirou had come to see his younger brother's game.

Nathaniel had been nine, Ichirou had been thirteen. 

Both of them had been surrounded by bodyguards. 

Ichirou had extended pleasantries to Mary Wesninski and dragged his eyes up and down Nathaniel's sweaty body, Ichirou wasn't one for sports but even he had seen the talent in Nathaniel. 

Nathaniel had been left confused by the encounter, he didn't recognize the boy who had been nothing but polite to his mother but her face was pale as they returned home.

There had been an argument about whether to let Nathaniel continue his Exy playing or not. 

It had led to Nathaniel blanking out and marks on his upper arms that might have come from his mother as she dragged him to his bedroom or his father as he gesticulated using him.

_____

The second time they met was when Nathaniel was introduced to Kengo Moriyama, a few months later. It had been a formal event, something a child like Nathaniel should not be attending but he was taken along. 

The adults had talked quietly over his head and Nathaniel had strained his ears to listen.

The boy he had met earlier had been introduced to him then.

Nathaniel had dipped his head in the respect the heir of the Moriyamas deserved. 

_____

The third time they had met was after Mary had died. Nathaniel was sixteen and he was  _ not  _ grieving. 

The funeral was ostentatious, all of Nathan's staff dressed in black and carried black umbrellas. Nathan dipped his head at the words about his  _ faithful, loyal _ wife as if he hadn't been the one to give the kill order. 

Nathaniel had had many identities by then, many identities and a bullet mark on his shoulder, knife marks everywhere on his body except for where they would be visible.

His life was a bargaining chip, the very thing Mary hadn't wanted. But it was not the time to care about those things now. 

Nathaniel was sixteen and inconsequential.

Kengo Moriyama and attended the funeral. Nathaniel had bowed, ignoring the stretching of the scars on his back. Ichirou had stood there not acknowledging anything. 

____

The fourth time, they speak. Small sentences, baby steps.

The words felt inconsequential like Nathaniel was in the grand scale of things. 

"And do you have any objections?" Ichirou had asked him. 

"Not really," Nathaniel had glanced towards his father. The knives had been kept in their sheaths today as he had been threatened. 

_ If you do anyt— _

"Good. Here." 

Nathaniel watched the familiar ring spinning on the table for a few seconds before he took it to put it in his ring finger.

It fit him perfectly, he wondered if it meant that he and Mary had the same finger size or if his fiance and gotten it resized.

_____

The fifth time they didn't speak to each other so much as in front of each other. 

"I do." Nathaniel had said. 

Ichirou's closed lips tasted like nothing except the clammy fear and bile in Nathaniel's mouth.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

The first time his husband doesn't touch him, Nathaniel is waiting with bated breath, sitting on their wedding bed, as Ichirou pads about the room getting dressed. 

Nathaniel _knows_ what couples do after marriage. He knows and he's not stupid. 

If Ichirou wants it, Nathaniel has no actual power to say no. Not when sometimes a no means a death warrant.

But Ichirou doesn't touch Nathaniel. He speaks instead.

"Nathan has offended the Hartfords. Mary may have been a traitor to us—" 

"My mother was not a traitor." Nathaniel regrets the words as soon as he says them.

"You have a five million debt to my family. You'd do well to not contradict." Ichirou's voice is mild but there's a definite edge to it. He's standing at the foot of the bed and Nathaniel regrets his position.

"I'm sorry. I didn't intend it." He hates feeling defenceless and this is the moment he thinks that running again and dying would be better trade off. Maybe the Hartfords would actually be amenable to giving him amnesty.

"I think you did, _husband._ "

"Don't call me that." Nathaniel has heard that his tongue will get him in trouble someday. He didn't think it would be in this way. 

"What should I call you then?" Ichirou sits on the bead, his with his back against the head.

"Nathaniel." 

"That's a mouthful, Nathaniel _Moriyama_." Ichirou's voice would be teasing had Nathaniel thought him capable of it.

"Nathaniel Wesninski-Moriyama." 

"If you want all your identities why not Nathaniel Chris Neil Wesninski Dubey Gale Josten Moriyama?"

"You do you."

"Nathan?"

He flinched. Each time he'd been given a name on the run, he'd been enthralled at the distance it put him from his father's name.

"Maybe not that. I'll think about it." He lay down on the bed, facing towards Nathaniel and lifted his lips before turning to lie on his back.

He and Ichirou slept at the edges of the thankfully large bed on their wedding night and it was the slight smile which terrified Nathaniel as he finally drowsed.

______

Ichirou didn't live in a mansion as Nathaniel had supposed all Moriyamas did. He lived in a sparsely furnished, four bedroom which still managed to be the height of luxury. 

Though lived is a strong descriptor.

Ichirou slept and ate in the flat. 

Nathaniel had free run of it and the accompanying grounds. Well as free as four trails would let him be. 

They ate dinner (provided from outside and checked within an inch of its life) together, Nathaniel had given up on striking conversation after the first few days. 

Ichirou was not like Nathan when it came to an arranged marriage. There was no force in his eyes when he looked at Nathaniel, there were no finger marks on Nathaniel's forearms. 

They slept in separate rooms. 

It felt like having a ghost for a roommate. 

There is no second time Ichirou doesn't touch him when Nathaniel expects him to. He's almost stopped having that expectation.

Mary would have yelled at him for becoming complacent. _Trust no one, especially not family._ But the thing is, Ichirou and Nathaniel were not really family, they were only married.

The proof of the marriage was only in the rings that they wore and the ring which Nathaniel kept hidden in his drawer. 

_____

When Ichirou does touch for the first time after their marriage, they've been living together for a month. 

It's at a lavish event which Nathaniel and Ichirou are hosting. Kengo comes up to them as they are making polite conversation with one of the guests.

Ichirou's hand taps at his wrist and shivers run down his spine. 

But there's something to be said about a poker face developed after years of being held captive in your childhood home.

Nathaniel quickly nods and Ichirou's hand slides around his waist as if it has _practice_ being there.

"Father," Ichirou says, "I'm glad you could come."

"Don't play with me," Kengo hisses out. His eyes are flit down to Ichirou's hand on Nathaniel's waist.

"I was being honest then and I am now. It's not worth it to protect _him_ any longer… _._ He's useless. His following is ultimately seven loyal people four of whom are ours and the rest are mercenaries." Nathaniel knows who is being talked about. He had once felt an intense rush of pain when Mary's first screams had come out of the room she shared with Nathan. Now, he feels a vicious pleasure course through him.

"And you think this is the best way to convince me? Don't believe that I don't know how distant the two of you are." Kengo's words are meant to bring distrust but Nathaniel and his _husband_ had both individually come to the conclusion that the eight guards provided by Kengo were most likely snitches. 

"This is not to convince you of Wesninski's patheticness, it's for myself. I never did believe it. But my marriage still holds to me and I'm not going to marry a woman."

"You'll have an heir if you do. It'll be replacing one sham for another," Kengo says and Ichirou's hand tightens around Nathaniel. 

It's like he's present in the conversation as the main prop, the ring someone proposes with, the crown on the king ordering an execution. 

"I will not back track."

"Then, Son, I hope you see why I won't change my opinion on the Butcher."

Kengo steps back and turns.

His son's hand leaves Nathaniel's waist.

______

Nathan Wesninski has been in jail for a week when Nathaniel wakes up to a pounding headache and sweat running over him. The lights are on in his room and he fumbles under his pillow for a gun which is not there.

The gun had been a staple in his life and without it this was the first time the helplessness sunk in.

The light was open and Ichirou stood in the door frame looking at Nathaniel. There had been a nightmare, it was usual and Nathaniel had no idea why it terrified him so much this time.

He took in breaths to calm himself down and Ichirou stepped inside. 

"You know that he's not here, right?" Ichirou said. And Nathaniel was shocked at how accurately he'd picked the nightmare's topic.

"He can't come here, he is jailed."

"The guards are your fathers men. My father is your father's man. Do you really think jail will stop him?" Nathaniel's distaste for Ichirou's complacency was evident.

"Do you really think that I'd provoke Kengo if I thought he'd retaliate? Stop looking at me through your lens, Nathaniel." 

"How am I supposed to look at you then? I know nothing of you. Except that I'm supposed to be your rebellion against your father," and wasn't that the crux of the matter? Nathaniel was stuck as the husband of the mildly rebellious heir. 

"You're not—"

"Ichirou Moriyama, you married me. You don't want to sleep with me. You don't want to talk to me. I can't argue against you. You do realise that I am trapped in this?" He laid out the facts bare as they were. 

"Are you planning to leave then? I won't stop you."

"Your men will. If i leave, it'll be a death wish and no one will care."

"I'll care." Ichirou's voice was not measured like it usually was.

"What?"

"I care. I know you feel trapped, that this is not the life you wanted. But this is a life and it's better than dying."

"Why do you care? I don't know you, you don't know me."

"You're my family." Nathaniel knew what he should say, family isn't a guarantee for caring. 

"My father burnt me with an iron when I was eleven. My mother screamed for three days before she was shot." Family wasn't a guarantee. 

"I've changed food testers four times since you came here and bought out all four of my father's guards." 

The problem with the Moriyama family was that the dark was much less obvious than it had been in the Wesninski household.

Nathaniel had thought he'd be a bargaining chip when he married, his father's way of appeasing Ichirou Moriyama. It turned out to be useless, Ichirou pushed for his father's take down.

"Guards can be bought back." Nathaniel said. 

"My father is not well," Ichirou said and for once Nathaniel was shocked into silence. Kengo was sick and for someone with access to as many doctors as the family had, admittance of being unwell could basically equal admittance of being on the death bed.

"And?" There had to be a better response but Nathaniel had only one interaction to understand the complicated relationship Ichirou and his father had. He knew that Ichirou hid a lot more than he would ever show.

"He and I had a talk yesterday, your Nathan will be taken care of. He's outgrown his use by offending our allies." Ichirou smield that ghost smile again.

With the word Nathan coming out of his mouth and the way he smiled, Nathaniel was taken back to the wedding, Ichirou was on the bed this time as well. 

And it was enough to make Nathaniel scoot back.

"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm not your father." 

"What do you want then?"

"Just come here."

Ichirou took hold of Nathaniel's hand and pulled him closer until they were both sitting against the headrest, bodies touching. 

"I am not your father. I'm not going to become him either."

"How can I believe that?"

"When you were nine, you were the best in your junior exy league. You were supposed to earn for us."

"I remember."

"Do you ever wonder why you're not a collegde Exy player by now?"

"I was caught."

"Being caught would make you easier to ship to the Ravens." Ichirou's words were brutal, but they were honest. 

"I don't know why I'm not there."

"I bargained for it." Matter of factly. "Mary approached me when you were in Europe at 16."

Nathaniel remembered Mary coming to the motel with minor wounds one day. It'd have been forgettable, except it was the only time she left him alone.

"She asked for your life in exchange for information that Nathan had worked with our European competition."

Nathan would never do it. The evidence had to be faked. 

"What did you do?"

"Let her believe what she wanted, the evidence was more of leads really" Mary wasn't stupid. And neither was Nathaniel, "What are you not telling me?" Nathaniel asked.

"She—" Ichirou paused to collect his words"—traded her life for yours. Her death as the true evidence" 

Nathaniel dug his nails into his clenched fists. You can love someone while hating them more.

"And you let her?" Nathaniel was drained out. The night was full of too many revelations.

"It solved a lot of problems. Would you have said no?"

Nathaniel knew what problems were solved. Nathan would be taken out, there would be a better relationship with the Hartfords if the Moriyamas simply gave over Nathan to them. 

"No," Nathaniel said. And thought of how his mother must have smiled at the thought of her husband coming fresh off from jail and being struck down by her brother. 

"Yeah."

Ichirou still had Nathaniel's hand in his and he stroked along Nathaniel's knuckles. 

"This feels vaguely familiar," Ichirou mused.

"You never thought of a name."

"Nate." Ichirou looked at their joined hands and then at Nathaniel's face.

"May I call you Nate?"

Nathaniel grinned, "Do I get to call you Ichi in return?"

Ichirou tilted his head to rest it on Nathaniel's shoulder, "Ichi is an abomination, but you can call me that. In private."

______

There were unexpected touches after that night. Ichirou grew a little bit more tactile. 

Their hands brushed sometimes as they ate or Ichirou spent time with him in the evenings. 

Nathaniel finally asked for a computer in the house. 

He got a highschool diploma over the next year. And thought about bringing up college programs. 

But he didn't bring them up for some time because there were tensions running in the Moriyama family. Kengo became much worse, to the point where Ichirou admitted to him that he expected a call from the hospital any day. 

Edgar Allen's Exy team came under investigation by its university and the police for the brutal abuse of its players. Riko Moriyama was the second son who ruled the roost there. Nathaniel only vaguely remembered his adult form from the wedding but he did properly remember him as the child in junior Exy. 

Ichirou left one day and Nathaniel heard about the suicide of his brother in the news.

He had once wanted to warn Ichirou about family, but now he realized that Ichi didn't really require the warning.

Ichirou had knocked at his door that night. 

For the first time after their marriage they had shared a bed.

Nathaniel's husband woke up in cold sweat that night. And Nathaniel held him until the nightmare stopped replaying in his head.

Kengo died a few weeks after his second son. Ichirou's nightmares persisted even as he became the heir. 

There was something to be said about loving and hating. How things never really let you go. 

But Nathaniel just shared his bed, and his comfort, called his partner Ichi and showed him his 4-7-11 breathing regimen. 

There was no defined moment when it became their bed, their bedroom. But if Nathaniel had been asked to pick, it'd be when Ichirou and he began sharing a blanket as the cold rolled in. If Ichirou were asked to pick, I'd have been much earlier, when he brought his tooth brush to his husband's en suite.

____

Nathaniel began university a few months after they died. He had picked up Exy and played for the USC Trojans. There were whispers about his marriage status and the hyphenated name he kept. Ichirou had told him to choose another, for his own safety but Nathaniel Wesninski-Moriyama had gone through too much to become who he was. 

A few months later, Nathan Wesninski was released from jail and security was upped around Nathaniel. 

Ichirou stayed home for longer and longer hours, pacing, worrying more than Nathaniel. Until Nathaniel had to pull him down and make him take stock of the uselessness of his worry.

Security was relaxed again after a few months when there was an _aided_ FBI raid on the Butcher of Baltimore's home and he was killed in an encounter.

Ichirou took him out to dinner that day, a cheap chain restaurant Nathaniel had mentioned liking before. Both of them wore beanies and shades and were stared at by the wait staff when neither knew shit about the food on the refurbished menu.

___

There were plenty of moments that define Nathaniel's life. 

Five when he was selected his first Exy Raquet.

Eleven when his flesh burned under an iron.

Sixteen in a black suit watching a coffin being lowered to the ground and not knowing how to feel. Screams still echoing in his head.

There were also plenty of realisations that define his life.

Trust no one. People were made to betray. The pain could almost always be worse. He was going to die soon enough. He was inconsequential. He was in love with his husband.

He had come to each of them slowly, unintentionally. 

But as soon as they struck him, it was easy to go back in time and analyse what happened, and where, that they came to him.

With the last one, Nathaniel had years of learning to trust someone, of sharing a bed and a life. 

____

The realisation changed nothing between them. But Nathaniel had a better definition for the way he felt disarrayed after Ichirou made jokes and smiled, after he called him Nate. 

He had better context for the pride that swelled in his heart when Ichirou spoke to him in Japanese for the first time. 

The familiarity between the two of them remained the same.

Nothing changed except Nathaniel sometimes initiated touches, sometimes he lifted his husband's hand and put it over his shoulder as he snuggled in.

Nathaniel knew that Ichirou was aware of the increased proximity between them. But neither said anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is fluff!! Hahaha  
> Note: Niko mentioned Nathaniel being called Nate and since I've not read at all of this ship, I've no idea whose idea that was. But I've appropriated it.  
> Note: I hate morissey (idk how to spell) from the Smiths for his rapid descent into a racist ass dick. So as a non white Muslim I feel it appropriate to appropriate his song titles, J the guitarist would approve  
> 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> FKUFF FLUFF FLUFFFFFFFF

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am yeeting this before real life takes hold tomorrow.

Somehow, Nate had thought that the end of the silence between them would make a sound.

But it’s not like that. When it does happen, it’s in the fast-food restaurant they are in to celebrate the Trojans’ last victory. His face has some ketchup running down it and he doesn’t flinch when Ichirou’s finger comes to rub off. He turns his head, lips touching those fingers. And Ichirou’s breath doesn’t so much hitch as catch.

Their eyes meet and Nate watches, waiting to see what happens, Ichirou traces his lips with his fingertips and Nate opens his mouth, closing his eyes.

It’s a blatant show of trust, eyes closed, hands letting his paper tissue drop to his empty plate and Ichirou knows it.

Nate knows it and Ichirou knows it, and they’re in a restaurant sitting ever so close.

Nate has grown up with touch being one of the many languages he speaks, and right here, his husband is saying a thousand words, breaking the silence by the touch.

Ichirou comes closer and Nate opens his eyes to Ichirou pecking him in the corner of his mouth. For a married couple, this is probably the most intimate they’ve been and it is somehow not scary. Nate is not startled as the peck builds into a kiss. It’s not his first kiss, and it is more chaste than his first kiss, But Ichirou presses his teeth unto Nate’s bottom lip before withdrawing and the slight twinge makes him feel warm all over his body.

The room's clatter comes back and Nathaniel raises his hand to his lips, still trying to process. Ichirou’s face has the slightest flush and his head is cocked in question. Nate bites his lips where Ichirou’s teeth had touched hem and Ichirou’s face darkens. He always chooses his words carefully but it is a mark of how flustered he is that he takes so long to choose them.

“Nathaniel, is this something that you want?” His hand moves away from Nate’s thighs, where it had come to as they kissed. Giving him space, giving reassurance while reaffirming their relationships increasingly blurring lines.

“I—yes. This is something I want.” The surety in his voice isn’t covered up in the way his words come out. Eager and trembling together. 

This time it’s Nate who covers the gap between them, taking control of the kiss. His hands wrap around Ichirou’s neck as his husband’s come to touch his cheek, his chest.

They part for breath, in the scrambled sentences Nate’s brain can put together right now, he thinks how this is his teenager moment and a dam bursts as he laughs. This is his damn teenager moment; he has won a game, he is having his first kiss with someone he cares about, and they’re on a date.

Everything is out of order but it is.

And Nate was the kid who thought himself inconsequential at sixteen.

Ichirou doesn’t laugh with him, but Nate knows he sees the humor in the situation. Their eyes sparkle at each other. It is only a distinct cough from their waitress who has brought the bill that keeps Nate from going for it again.

The payment process and the short walk down to their car have never felt quite this long before, neither has the drive down to their flat. Nate is thankful to not be the one driving, he doesn’t think he could when all of him is a jumbled, if happy, mess. There is an undercurrent of worry as well, he still doesn’t know how he feels about how far they will go once they get home, but Nate pushes it down. In the entire time of their marriage, Ichirou has never pushed for anything physical. Nate thinks about the trust they had built up over time. And decides to let it was over in this aspect too.

They come home and Ichirou’s hand wraps around his waist as they ride to the elevator to their flat, his tongue leaving stripes on Nate’s neck. He blows on the wet spot a bit, making Nate shiver. He likes this, he wants this. It isn’t as big a revelation as it might have been.

They make it to their bedroom, nodding to the guard stationed outside their apartment. Nate doesn’t see him falter at the proximity his bosses are exhibiting.

“You’re still okay with this?” Ichirou asks, even as they’re both working to shed layers. “I want to see you naked, and take what we were doing further, but…..not have sex yet.” Nate spoke with more confidence than he felt, “Ichirou? we can do that right?”

“Yes, of course. If you want to stop let me know.”

Nate watched Ichirou strip until he was in his boxers, he usually folded his clothes with startling amounts of attention, nut today it was more of a habit born hurry. Nate himself put his clothes in the hamper. And sat on the edge of the bed. Ichirou moved to him and they fell back in together.

==

Nate fell asleep wrapped around Ichirou that night. They had shared a bed before and Ichirou ran cold, I this wasn’t his first rodeo, untangling himself from the mess of limbs they were to go to his morning run. Ichirou would wake p in some time before Nate got home and make coffee and cut fruit for both of them. It was an established routine, but Nate hadn’t factored in the fact that they fell asleep wrapped in each other, in ways beyond the heat-seeking. And that it was practically impossible to detach without waking up his husband.

Oh well. His morning run could be skipped. Nate fell asleep again in his husband’s arms, and well if he accidentally skipped his morning class, he figured he had earned it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bet you thought I was lying when I said I would finish it........I might add a chapter or write in this verse because I am honestly in love with this ship now, 
> 
> THIS WAS A RIDE THROUGH AND THROUGH LMK IF YOU LIKED IT.  
> toss a comment to your lonely writer or smth

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from the light that never goes out, because I'm a cliche.


End file.
